Character Count

[BigQEd]

When initially deployed, Awakening staff debated over how many characters should be allowed per account/person. Today, we are set at 10, but personally I feel 10 is probably too many and as the server grows I am a little concerned about DB size. To be honest, I thought our number should be 5 per person. If you think about it, in Live you had 1 character and then got an additional slot when you unlocked Jedi. While I feel the number should be a little higher, should that number be so high?

I would like to hear from everyone and I have added a poll to this topic. Please vote and explain your position below. This topic is just a discussion and unless it's overwhelming one way or another we don't plan on making any change.

[darriandm]

I picked three.

Personally, I think allowing too many characters per account can ultimately have a negative effect on the economy. Over a long enough period of time, anyone who would want their own crafters, entertainers, doctors, etc. could have their own and would not need to rely on others to further themselves.

Everything in Pre-Cu SWG is set up so that people have to rely on others to be the best they can be. Will *everyone* grind out all the characters they need to be self-sufficient? No, of course not, not everybody has that kind of time.. but I think enough would that we could see an impact. I suppose there wasn't anything stopping people from doing that in live if they had the money to pay for the accounts, and of course people did, but still.

With 3, it gives you enough room to have a combat toon, a support toon and a crafting toon, so you can reasonably experience all aspects of the game. But again, 5 is good too, it would give more wiggle room to try new things out and that's not necessarily a bad thing either. 10 is far too much, nobody needs that many unless they're just cranking them out to fill a city or something.

[Wodaz]

I like 8. I get what your saying Ed about live, but one could have multiple accounts on live which we cannot here. I for one had 5 accounts for multiple reasons, but it was one of the biggest things I hated once NGE hit and everyone left is not having enough characters on one account to deal with declining server populations. I understand if our server gets that big and stays big, I know it is growing , but there's still a lack of many trader professions, docs, ents and ect. that are available at all play times.

PS I like 10 but I'm willing to compromise if need be to 8 ;D

[Marros]

I think 5 is a good number. When you think about it, 10 really is too many. It allows one person to have too many lots available for structures. I don't like seeing certain people with 100 harvesters on resources every week amassing huge stockpiles. There should be more buying, trading and selling between crafters and others to stimulate the economy. 10 may have been the right number to jump start the server, but now that the population has grown I think it should be reduced. Too many slots also allows a small number of players to build their own city without actually going out and getting any citizens, potentially filling the map with cities of 5 citizens. Nobody has time to play 10 characters anyways, most of them are purely for utilizing extra lots to make more money. I'd be willing to give half of them up even though I am currently doing the same thing

[Durante]

As much as I love having the ability to be fully self sufficient, I feel it takes away from the overall game play. If I can have someone Master all professions then I never have to reach into the economy, I can just do everything myself.

Biggest Points for me are:

• Player Cities, a very small group can max out a city giving it an illusion of 'activity'

• Economy/Community - Why befriend a BioEngineer if I can just make one of my own? Or Droid Engineer, or Master Architect... or tailor?

[jwyork]

here is the initial problem i see with this. Do those who have all 10 characters get grandfathered or are they forced to chose their 5 after grinding out 10 various characters. I would rather see a lot reduction PER account and leave it at 10 if that is the case. Can lots be assigned per account instead of per character?

Or maybe make house lots take up zero lots if you declare in a city and you can have 50 lots per account outside of city? or even 30 lots .. i don't really care i don't do a lot with harvesters but a little. Reducing lot cost within city limits would nullify the argument for harvesters.

[jwyork]

I think 5 is a good number. When you think about it, 10 really is too many. It allows one person to have too many lots available for structures. I don't like seeing certain people with 100 harvesters on resources every week amassing huge stockpiles. There should be more buying, trading and selling between crafters and others to stimulate the economy. 10 may have been the right number to jump start the server, but now that the population has grown I think it should be reduced. Too many slots also allows a small number of players to build their own city without actually going out and getting any citizens, potentially filling the map with cities of 5 citizens. Nobody has time to play 10 characters anyways, most of them are purely for utilizing extra lots to make more money. I'd be willing to give half of them up even though I am currently doing the same thing

Again .. is there a way to limit lots per account instead of characters .. this way people can still have various toons.

[Kankulaan]

For me 5 would be good, I realize there's concerns about the economy but I like having a couple of slots for 'experiment' characters, no idea why I'd want to be a baking tailoring TKM who can play the bandfill but it's that kind of stuff that makes SWG great imho. O0

Edit: after reading this over carefully have changed my mind and am sticking to 5 characters (or less) being a better idea for the long run for what it's worth, thanks....

[Kankulaan]

I think 5 is a good number. When you think about it, 10 really is too many. It allows one person to have too many lots available for structures. I don't like seeing certain people with 100 harvesters on resources every week amassing huge stockpiles. There should be more buying, trading and selling between crafters and others to stimulate the economy. 10 may have been the right number to jump start the server, but now that the population has grown I think it should be reduced. Too many slots also allows a small number of players to build their own city without actually going out and getting any citizens, potentially filling the map with cities of 5 citizens. Nobody has time to play 10 characters anyways, most of them are purely for utilizing extra lots to make more money. I'd be willing to give half of them up even though I am currently doing the same thing

Again .. is there a way to limit lots per account instead of characters .. this way people can still have various toons.

Yes this, just say you get 'X' lots per account not per character (not sure if that's easy to implement though).

[Wodaz]

here is the initial problem i see with this. Do those who have all 10 characters get grandfathered or are they forced to chose their 5 after grinding out 10 various characters. I would rather see a lot reduction PER account and leave it at 10 if that is the case. Can lots be assigned per account instead of per character?

Or maybe make house lots take up zero lots if you declare in a city and you can have 50 lots per account outside of city? or even 30 lots .. i don't really care i don't do a lot with harvesters but a little. Reducing lot cost within city limits would nullify the argument for harvesters.

Yeah I would like to know this too IF it happens because currently I'm grinding more then 5 and would be a little upset if I have to pick after the fact.

[EmwunGarand]

8

One Bounty Hunter
One Pure Melee class
One Master Smuggler
One Pure crafter
One Ranger / CH
One Master Doc
One Master Dancer/Music
One utility Ithorian to eventually make Jedi.

[Anomaly]

anything more than 2 or 3 is a bad idea IMO.
is it fun for the players to have more? yes.

but given some time, the server and its economy will suffer because every player has the ability to become
completely self sufficient.

the strength of this game is a constant reliance on other players and the economy to get things done.

[darriandm]

8

One Bounty Hunter
One Pure Melee class
One Master Smuggler
One Pure crafter
One Ranger / CH
One Master Doc
One Master Dancer/Music
One utility Ithorian to eventually make Jedi.

How are smugglers, crafters, docs, etc supposed to expect to make money when everyone has one? I know people hate feeling limited, but with the way the game is set up I genuinely don't think people should be able to do everything.

[jwyork]

I really do think lots are the bigger issue here. Because honestly once you settle into what you are comfortable with being self sufficient becomes a job. MOST people are not going to want another job. They will settle into two or three they play regularly. Reducing lot amounts i think are the bigger issue here.


If each account had 50 lots that would be half as many. If you could also make it so IF a player choses to become a resident of a player city they do not use lots in their housing structures within the city that would also free up the ability to place factories/harvesters for those who want to gather resources.

It would definately be nice to see more resource sellers than resource horders though in my opinion. Just saying.

[ChyldeMyst]

If we dissociate lot counts from character counts and make them account-wide instead, I suppose it could limit the need to reduce character counts. I personally don't want more than five or six characters myself, because I tend to develop severe altitis and then the game eats my soul. But if each account could have, say, 10 characters and 50 lots, that would control the structure spam better.

However, since Ed didn't present that as an option, my vote's for five toons. My character stable tends to grow to the size of its environment, so limits are good for me....

[MisterNudd]

I think this should have been sorted/agreed before launch to be honest. Some people including myself could end up loosing chars, if a change was implemented .

I love playing alts and at one point on live had five accounts running, I know this is not for everyone and because there slots available it does not mean you have to use them if its not your thing.

Which would I choose to delete? I couldn't say to be honest

I think off the top of my head I have eight active chars at the moment and they have been online at some point today or will before I logoff.

To a point yes, I'm self-sufficient but even with eight chars I can't do everything and do buy and trade with others when I can find someone willing to craft/gather for me.
I rolled an ent my first week here due to one being online and out of my time zone, for a few weeks I was the only one after they quit. Would I like to delete her, no. I rolled a doc as there where two active and both again out of my time zone, I wouldn't to delete that either....All my chars are used, I could go on but I won't.

Each to there own I guess

[biggz63]

I vote 5.

I thought 2 was not enough on live. 10 seems too much. I like the strategy part that comes with limiting how many characters you can have. Makes you really think what you want to make. 10 to me is like wow, you can create almost every class, have every skill, and theres no real thinking behind it.

[Kankulaan]

I think this should have been sorted/agreed before launch to be honest. Some people including myself could end up loosing chars, if a change was implemented .

I love playing alts and at one point on live had five accounts running, I know this is not for everyone and because there slots available it does not mean you have to use them if its not your thing.

Which would I choose to delete? I couldn't say to be honest

I think off the top of my head I have eight active chars at the moment and they have been online at some point today or will before I logoff.

To a point yes, I'm self-sufficient but even with eight chars I can't do everything and do buy and trade with others when I can find someone willing to craft/gather for me.
I rolled an ent my first week here due to one being online and out of my time zone, for a few weeks I was the only one after they quit. Would I like to delete her, no. I rolled a doc as there where two active and both again out of my time zone, I wouldn't to delete that either....All my chars are used, I could go on but I won't.

Each to there own I guess

I think that's valid, but I think jwyork's points are getting at the heart of it.

In theory you could have 5+ characters that's more than fine imho, as long as you have a total of 30 lots max for your account. So yes you could have 5+ alts, but only lots for 3, and that would pretty much force dependency in the economy, since it's impossible to macro 24/7 on 5+ toons.

Edit: again have edited this, it just seems safer to have 5 characters (or less) hope that's ok, thanks.

[Kankulaan]

I really do think lots are the bigger issue here. Because honestly once you settle into what you are comfortable with being self sufficient becomes a job. MOST people are not going to want another job. They will settle into two or three they play regularly. Reducing lot amounts i think are the bigger issue here.


If each account had 50 lots that would be half as many. If you could also make it so IF a player choses to become a resident of a player city they do not use lots in their housing structures within the city that would also free up the ability to place factories/harvesters for those who want to gather resources.

It would definately be nice to see more resource sellers than resource horders though in my opinion. Just saying.

Yes, even 50 lots is probably too much, give them 30 lots and with larger harvestors and houses take-up more lots it would force dependency. People could alt to their heart's content it wouldn't undermine the economy since you'd never be able to do everything by yourself completely.

[Arithos]

What is the real issue here? Is this a technical database problem or a game economics issue? Are lots the problem or is it having the characters and their info themselves the issue that's affecting the DB? I think this is what Ed is really concerned about here. Or am I wrong? I can see how both could be related but are we talking about reducing characters for the sake of DB space or saving a fledgling economy that hasn't really had time to get off the ground?

If we need to reduce for the sake of the database then yes, by all means, lets cut the characters back now if it'll mean a more stable server in the long run. And as a consequence if that helps with the economy, great. I could handle cutting back to 5-6 characters. It would hurt since I play 9 but I'd survive. So if this is a serious consideration then let's do it quick before I get any more attached to my toons.